Interviews and photos by Subhana Shiwmangal
Stabroek News on Wednesday spoke to members of the public on the East Bank of Demerara generally about the rising cost of living and how it is affecting them. Their comments follow:
Fazia Khan
Fazia Khan, a fruit vendor: ‘Basically everything has raised in the market and almost my entire household started to work. As a fruit vendor consumers have been complaining about the rise in fruit prices. For example, the grapes for the past few months when I started working with the fruit shop were sold at $1200 a lb and currently it is sold for $1300 a lb. A wholesaler that buy grapes to sell back said, grapes gone up by $200, and he had to add on an extra on his grapes when selling back. Also, some consumers can’t afford to buy a whole watermelon. Watermelon is sold for $200 a slice according to how we weigh it, and people prefer that over buying a whole watermelon… consumers wouldn’t want to buy the whole one because it’s expensive, and they cannot afford it. The weight determines the prices of watermelon being sold for, for instances, $1400 for 7 lbs watermelon etc. The government should be able to provide us with the things we need and whatever resources we have in Guyana, it should come back into the country to benefit the people of Guyana. The government should pay a little more attention to that.’